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Raw Bac-un (Bacon)

June 24, 2009

Average:

4.24

Average: 4.2(25 votes)

Servings:

Makes around 30 to 40 strips - depends on how large your egglplant is

Yes, you read the recipe name right – it is Raw Bacun (Bacon)! I modified this recipe off of one I got from the SAD TO RAW website. I subed agave for honey to make it vegan.The original recipe called for 1 full teaspoon of cayenne! I made this way the first time and it was way to hot for me. So, I modified it to have a lot less cayenne and it turned out wonderful. (AND they actually look like real bacon!)

When I make this for raw potlucks, people are always buzzin about it and asking me for the recipe.

NOTE: This recipe is for home use only. My bf and I sell this for our raw food home business so this is not for commerical sale use! Please respect that! ;)

Thinly slice your eggplant, lengthwise (think about how bacon strips look).
I use an old cheese slicer and mine turns out great. You could probably accomplish this with a vegetable peeler too.
Alternately, you could make ‘round’ bacon by slicing the other way.

Remaining ingredients make up the marinade. Mix up these to make the marinade.
Marinate egglplant strips in the marinade for 2 hours.

Place on dehydrator sheets. Salt bacons (optional) and dehydrate for 9 hours. Turn bacon over and dehydrate another 9 hours. Around 110 degrees.

TIPS: I actually dehyrdated mine longer. You can judge for yourself if you want them even crisper. They will still have an “oily-ness” to them even after dehydrated. If you don’t want this, then you can put less oil in the marinade or “blot” your bacons after they come out of the dehydrator.

A variation on the bacon was that I dehydrated some grounded pine nut to make a pine nut spread and I spread some of the spread on to the bacon. Creates a unique taste to the bacon.

66 reponses to "Raw Bac-un (Bacon)"

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I added smoked paprika and mesquite powder to this recipe. It went in the dehydrator last night, and I had to go to work, so I emailed DH to check on them for "crispness." Here's what he said:

"Holy liquid smoke! Not sure if they're crispy enough. It sorta has the texture of beef jerky. Oh my God are they awesome!!!! Don't know if they taste like bacon since I haven't had bacon in close to twenty years...but awesome!" So I'm rating this five stars on the strength of that response.

They are taking longer than 16 hours, but I've tested it a few times. It still tastes like eggplant to me, so if you don't like eggplant this may not be for you. I also will reduce the oil next time and cut my slices thicker. By the way, the leftover marinade is really good too. I'm going to add it to a raw ranch salad dressing.

12.

You want to slice it the same just like real meat bacon. So pretty thin sort of like lunchmeat slices are but not too thin that you can see through it. It is difficult to measure. Actually, the thickness of a cheese slice would be about perfect I guess

13.

hey there - i read through all the comments - but I still am not sure how thick or thin to slice my eggplant. Can somebody please recommend an approximate thinkness that you've tried and works? I have onion bread and portabello mushroom burgers awaiting bac-un slices :)) Thanks!

14.

I have had some time to experiement with my recipe here a bit. I have noticed that you can cut the oil down to 1/2 (I didn't cut it down any less than yet - next batch!) and sub the other 1/4 with water (make sure you keep your marinate mixed well - it will separate quickly - I stir mine with a whisk as I baste or "paint" my strips). It will still have enough oil. If you use too little oil, you will get rubbery pieces. Some friends tried it will hardly any oil and their bacons turned out tough and rubbery and sort of tasteless. Yes, as other have noticed, the spices (paprkia, cayenne) and the agave and ume plum vinegar are all substitutable. You can use other vinegars spices and sweeteners too. The original recipe only calls for 1 teaspoon of black pepper as a spices - I have yet to try that version yet. I changed the name too! "Bac-un's" - the "un" for UNcooked!

15.

Yeah, this is pretty much the bomb. I only had a little ume vinegar left, so I used ACV for the rest of it, and also didn´t have cayenne, so I used hot paprika instead of sweet paprika. Also, I didn´t have any sweetner and left out that part completely. And I doubled the recipe, which was a GREAT idea. My nonraw hubby who hates eggplant liked this too!

16.

I tried this last week and it was brilliant. I used red wine vinegar instead of the plum stuff. Anyway today I found some smoked paprika and it smells exactly like bacon, I'm going to do triple the recipe and give the smoked paprika a go.

17.

Okay, I bought the eggplant (I feel like the little red hen, but if I don't report my progress, I might never get this stuff made). When I went, I told the kid working in produce about the recipe & showed him the pic - although I didn't say anything about raw, just "bacon substitute" - I'm trying to spread the word that people can happily enjoy eating veggies :)

Oh, and in case my dad's message didn't make sense (they usually don't to a lot of people), he was trying to be funny, saying that we raw foodies are already so funny/crazy/etc., he can't imagine what would happen if we were drunk :D

20.

A message from my dad: From all the bits and pieces I'm hearing i.e. "How much B12 is needed for a raw vegan?" "raw bacon" and other bits and pieces of humor I have heard about from this site, I've decided that military special forces and you guys are 2 groups of people that ought not to have alcohol. (But the raw food sure allows me to work through the night!)

21.

These are sooo the bomb....I just made another batch last night with the spicy fried mushrooms. I could live off this stuff, the taste is awesome. TDG-this taste nothing like eggplant to me. I used ACV instead of the plum vinegar.I would suggest trying it, what have you got to lose? I hope you like it as much as I do. Good luck.

22.

Does it taste anything like eggplant? I just can't tolerate the taste of eggplant. Did anyone have luck with using a different vegetable to make this recipe? I really miss bacon, lettuce, tomato and guacamole sandwiches....

23.

Dehydrated these last night, didn't measure anything..just added everything together. The were to die for, I ate the whole batch...excellent. Mine were very crispy and tasty. Nexttime I will double the batch.

24.

just wanted to add another "yay" to the list. i used just a couple substitutions: honey and rice vinegar and 1/4 oil as some suggested. thanks for sharing! it has inspired me to do more eggplanty things...nice meat substitute.

25.

I did a taste test - made this recipe and other Raw Bacon recipe by Rawclaire. They were both good with very different tastes. With this recipe, I cut the oil to 1/2 c.; when it was all done, I think I would've cut the plum vinegar down to 1/2 c. or less - a little goes a long way (in my mind). I used a mandoline and cut thick and thin slices for both recipes - dehydrated thick slices for longer, all told about 24-28 hours. My slices crisped up fairly well; maybe it was because I used less oil. Thought both were yummy.

28.

Astara - Hmm, you can try it but I think the eggplant is more "durable" and thereby a better choice. the zucchini (because it has a lot of water) might dehydrate differently plus the marinate can make the pieces a bit heavy. But if you try it and it works out, let us know!

29.

I can't wait for my fiance and I to try this recipe. I am starting once again to try raw recipes and become vegan. Maybe this will help my fiance stop eating real bacon. He is slowly giving up meat. He already gave up beef which is pretty big for him. Thanks for the great recipe.